The blue ribbon panel asked to study the future of horse racing in Ontario recommended major changes — including slashing racing dates in half — but held back the amount of public subsidy it believes the industry should receive.

“It’s kind of like playing cards: You don’t show your cards in a poker game,” Agriculture Minister Ted McMeekin said, of ongoing talks between the industry and the panel, along with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation.

“We need to have these discussions and we need to have them quickly.”

Horse tracks in Ontario have been sharing slot machine revenues with the OLG since 1998. In 2011, the Slots at Racetracks Program (SARP) was worth about $345 million — money OLG and the provincial government wants to funnel to general revenues rather than horse racing.

The panel’s interim report, released in August, agreed SARP had propped up racing for more than a decade without asking much from the industry in return and should be ended. But it also said a three-year, $50-million transition fund the government offered to wean racing off slots revenue was inadequate.

McMeekin said he agreed with that recommendation and is backing the panel — which includes three former cabinet ministers with NDP, Tory and Liberal backgrounds — to get a deal that will see a “viable, stable industry.”

The panel said while it won’t publicly release its proposed, three-year funding figure, it has shared it with the government.

“It is essential to avoid repeating the mistakes of SARP, which turned over funds to the industry with no strings attached,” the report says. “The panel believes that any new public funding for horse racing should be reviewed after three years.”

Besides recommending some taxpayer-funded financial support for the industry, the panel advocated slashing the number of racing days from 1,554 to 800, turning the Ontario Racing Commission into a purely regulatory body and a greater role for the ministry of agriculture.

Adopting the panel’s recommendations, the report says, should prevent the worst-case scenario of some 13,000 racehorses being euthanized.

The Ontario Horse Racing Industry Association offered a cautious welcome to the new industry model sketched out in the panel’s report.

“There certainly are elements of the model that need to be better understood, adjusted and modified but the panel has assured OHRIA that based on this model the government is prepared to enter into good faith negotiations with our industry,” OHRIA spokesman Sue Leslie said in a statement.